GC 2015: Final Fantasy VII Remake won’t run on Luminous Engine By André Mackowiak on August 5, 2015 at 8:19 PM

At E3 2015 Square Enix finally confirmed the development of a Final Fantasy VII remake, bringing some fresh air not only to the graphics, but also to the gameplay. Witnessing the visual beauty of Final Fantasy XV, fans may wonder which graphics engine will be used for the VII remake.

During an interview at Gamescom, we asked Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata if the Luminous engine might be used for the remake.

Tabata replied: “Final Fantasy VII (Remake) is not planned to be made with that.”

Kingdom Hearts 3 was the last game, which dropped the Luminous Engine in favor of Unreal Engine 4 in 2014.

The Luminous graphics engine is in development at Square Enix and was shown to the public for the first time in 2011. It now powers Final Fantasy XV and will be enhanced alongside the game development.

Read more details about the graphics engine in our upcoming interview with Tabata, which will be released later this week.

Btw can you give Tabata a friendly but unexpected slap? Then motion “shh” while telling him: “Shush now, everything will be ok. Just make sure you don’t overpromise next time, ok? Now work on a better trailer.”

Luminous Engine is one of the main reasons FFXV is even in development hell, and is still not done. This is just like Crystal Tools with FFXlll. Only reason XV still uses Luminous is because it’s too far along in development so they couldn’t change it, as that would make it take even longer. So FFXV will probably be the first and last SE game to use the Luminous Engine.

This is why Kingdom Hearts 3 shifted to Luminous almost immediately. They saw the issues they were having with XVs development, and that’s why KH3 is developing smoothly. DQXl is following suit. FFVll Remake using Unreal Engine 4 now makes sense.

Only benefit of Luminous, is that XV graphically, is probably going to look better than any of SE’s game this gen, even Vll. It’s just like FFXlll with Crystal Tools, . Luminous is a powerhouse, and a truly next gen engine.

Crysus Bu

The trailer was really good for it delivered on the bond between noct and his father. People are angry because they did not reveal the release date.

rockman29

Thank you space jeebus……… GTFO luminous engine.

Unreal Engine 4 please come to save Final Fantasy VII like the rest of games from Japan 😀

Shinobuden

So…Unreal Engine 4?

I really wouldn’t be surprised if VIIR overtakes XV in terms of development at this point because let’s face it; XV is back in development hell.

Crysus Bu

It would make sense considering FFXV is still in development. FFVII remake is a second priority and the last thing they want is to share resources and compromise on time on either game. It makes good business sense to go with UE4 so as to keep development and costs at a minimum. The same with KH3.

I’m assuming all unannounced titles will probably be utilising the Luminous Engine. They have definitely made strides on the actual implementation of their engine and it seems since launch (back in 2012) things are going really well. I’m assuming the next numbered iteration in the franchise will be developed with the Luminous Engine.

Kevin30

Fucking This!

4FFAN

That’s great news to me. Hopefully, after FFXV Square will figure out how to work efficiently with the Luminous Engine. I mean Crystal Tools was hard to work with at first but once they figured it out everything went great. XIII-2 and Lightning Returns didn’t go through the same development issues as XIII because they’d figured it out. Let’s hope the same thing happens with Luminous.

Socrates186

Is it me, or this statement by Tabata-san does not in fact confirm or deny that the FFVII remake is going to be un Luminous? All he said was just ”it has not been planned for it” (yet, maybe?) I mean, im pretty sure the game hasn’t even entered that stage yet, considering how frigging long Square Enix just takes to develop games for the last… decade.

I would like FFVII remake to be on the Luminous engine, its a mainline numbered FF and it deserved to be made in Square’s own, very impressive engine. My guess is that Nomura himself is not very fond of working with the Luminous….

Kevin30

“I would like FFVII remake to be on the Luminous engine, its a mainline numbered FF and it deserved to be made in Square’s own, very impressive engine.”
LOL. Well, good luck with that.

“My guess is that Nomura himself is not very fond of working with the Luminous….”

You don’t know why?

Kevin30

“Let’s hope the same thing happens with Luminous.”
Good fucking luck with that.

4FFAN

It’s been in development for 18 months…I think they already chose an engine.

4FFAN

Umm…Thanks?

Kevin30

Crystal tools is a failure, even today. Do you think Luminous engine will not be the same? They have to use Unreal 4 for their own sake.

Noctis Pendragon

If it is UE4 no thanks , FF VII:R would be inferior in almost every ways to FF XV .

John Reid

How? UE3 and 4 are amazing engines…

Noctis Pendragon

They are indeed but in the end a Luminous Engine game will look better and will be animated way better .

I can’t imagine a “Dawn trailler” quality under UE4 .

Tom

So what game used the Luminous engine then? Part of XV. It seems like a waste of money and energy on SE’s side. They developed and engine that no one uses :/

CocaineCowboyFF7

What do you mean “part” of XV? They have a separate engine for the action IIRC but all of the models, environments and animation will be done using Luminous.

stevenm281

I’m not angry for them not revealing the release date, I’m mad because they promised a huge promotion campaign at Gamescom and they didn’t deliver. Sure the trailer shows a promising story and amazing graphics, but it truly lacked content. Wasting two minutes out of three on a hugging scene was not enough to promote the main game.

I was expecting a much longer trailer than the one at Jump Festa 2015 and TGS 2014 with both story and gameplay: new magic spells, new voices, villains, airships, chocobos, etc.

Even the E3 2013 trailer had more to it and it was just an announcement trailer, while this one was supposed to show the final version of the game.

And the ATR? They selected 6 questions that they couldnt give much answers, what was the point? They showed 5sec gameplay against a malboro, 1min of running through one area, that’s it. Couldn’t say when the forum, demo, or game would be released, couldn’t say anything about the black-haired girl… the whole point of an ATR is to release info and show substantial content.

stevenm281

at first it was on both Ebony and Luminous, now they’re switching fully to Luminous. Tabata said it in 2013 or 2014.

Tom

By that I meant this:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XV#Development
“The game originally used Crystal Tools, a middleware engine designed by Square Enix to develop their seventh-generation console and PC content.[46] However, it was later rebuilt with a proprietary, action-oriented engine and some middleware tools along with parts of the company’s new Luminous Studio engine, such as its lighting technology.”

This makes me think that it’s not entirely Luminous.

stevenm281

that was during production in the PS3 era, not the PS4 version. the action-oriented engine was confirmed to be called Ebony. XV never used Crystal Tools, Versus XIII did.

Tom

Right, I see now. Somehow this half state left in my mind, I just read the rest of the wikipedia article I just posted.

Damjan Šalov

The remake will never be finished if they stick with Luminous. If you’re sceptical about U4 go check out the recent KH3 trailer. You might be surprised. U4 is a developer friendly and very convenient engine compared to Luminous since that engine was a complete nightmare to Square-Enix studio. It would be a waste of time for the developers to wait for the Luminous to be finished all together with FFXV if they plan on starting with the remake anytime soon. U4 is completely superior to U3 in every way.

Ebony is nothing more than a showcase engine. It’s not even a full engine. It was just used to prototype a build of the game in 2013, nothing more.

CocaineCowboyFF7

So yeah, it used to use Crystal tools but now it fully uses Luminous.

CocaineCowboyFF7

>…the action-oriented engine was confirmed to be called Ebony
Link?

stevenm281

it still was used…

stevenm281

look through the archives of this website, Tabata or Nomura said not long after the E3 announcement that they were building it on Ebony until Luminous was ready.

4FFAN

Why is Crystal Tools a failure? And I agree that they shouldn’t use Luminous for FFVII:R because the wait would be too long but once they figure out how to work Luminous, if they want to develop other games with that engine, than I believe it’ll work fine.

CocaineCowboyFF7

Not for actual development. It’s a showcase engine.

CocaineCowboyFF7

It’s not my responsibility to prove your claim, son.

stevenm281

you’re the one that doubt my claim, your responsibility to prove me wrong!

Does a criminal bring proofs of his crime himself to the judge or does the cops look for evidence?

I don’t care if you believe me or not, and its not my problem if you’re not interested in looking into this matter further, I got nothing to prove to anyone.

If everytime people are having a conversation we’d have to bring proofs of everything and search for links, it would become hectic and time consuming.

When I doubt someone, I look for facts, if you don’t do the same, your problem. I can admit when I’m proven wrong, because its true that memories can sometimes be confused, but I don’t intend to waste time searching for links for everything I claim.

CocaineCowboyFF7

Then your claim remains unfounded. So be it.

And I’m not asking you to prove everything you say. I’ve only asked you to prove one claim you made.

Nintendo Fan 4 Lif3

Either it’s Unreal Engine 4 or they’ve licensed a different engine for the remake.

stevenm281

Well then, since you want sources, here they are, the E3 2013 trailer was built with Ebony engine, but the actual game development was on DirectX11 until they could switch it completely to Luminous:

Name one game developed on Crystal Tools for the current gen. I think that will answer your question. Kingdom Heats 3 and Dragon Quest XI are being developed on Unreal 4. FFXIV 2.0 developed a new engine ( specifically for XIV ).

Kevin30

FF VII:R will not be inferior if they use UE 4. UE4 is better than Luminous garbage.

And you want to wait for a half decade for FFVIIR if they use Luminous, well , good luck with that.

stevenm281

Crystal Tools was for 7th generation, not 8th.

But yes, Square Enix admitted themselves that the engine was hell to work with and that they couldn’t do much with it when they were developping 13. On the other hand, they managed to improve it to develop 13-2 and LR.

Back in the days, if I remember correctly, Squaresoft created a different engine for every final fantasy game.

ADAMJENSEN13

So its probably Unreal Engine 4 like Kingdom Hearts. Or maybe Cryengine? Who knows.

stevenm281

Luminous is better than UE4 in terms of graphics quality, its just that the engine is not done yet, they’re working on it at the same time than FF15, once 15 is out, Luminous will be ready and will be able to be used for other games.

It’s simply logical that they can’t wait for the engine to be done before producing other games, so meanwhile, they’re using other engines, more than other UE4.

>…but the actual game development was on DirectX11 until they could switch it completely to Luminous:

As I explained in another thread – DirectX is not an engine. It’s software development tools. And how does this in any way prove your claim that the action-oriented engine in the showcase “engine” Ebony?

EamonX

But i don’t get it. Square just showcased the Witch Chapter 0 demo at gamescom running on the latest version of Luminous Engine & with DirectX 12.

What’s the point of investing all this time, money and effort on Luminous if they aren’t gonna use it again?

I would agree that FF7 Remake wouldn’t use Luminous because of development time, but that doesn’t mean future FF games wouldn’t?

stevenm281

as I said, its more or less what I was remembering.

It wasnt confirmed to be the action-oriented engine, I thought it was, but I knew that Ebony was used early on, so I figured it was it… even tho I remember differently.. as I mentioned earlier, memories can be confused sometimes.

stevenm281

I think that the engine is not done yet, they’re working on it at the same time than
FF15 to improve it.

Once 15 is out, Luminous will be ready and will be able to be used
for other games.

CocaineCowboyFF7

Okay, so we’ve established that you were wrong about that. Great.

MHDRem

i agree with that

Materia Man

“It’s not planned to be made with that”… So they haven’t even started making it!?!!?

Materia Man

Jan. 1st is the 20 year mark. Hope it’s done by then!

SandraHJ

Wow. Really? “No thanks”, because of that? Neither game is even out yet. For the record, there is nothing actually wrong with the UE4. Don`t just jump on the bandwagon of pessimists. The graphics in the remake will be stunning, whether they used UE4 or Luminous, and besides, the Luminous engine is not even finished! But sure, say “no thanks” to a potentially amazing game just because they chose a different engine, one that is perfectly capable of making a stunning game and is easier to work with. Jeez…

Knowles2

Didn’t they also recreate parts with Luminous and Crystal Tools at various times?